I know that I predicted that Mel and Maks would win, but what I didn’t tell you was that I voted for Helio and Julianne. I really wanted them to win. I thought, why should Mel win, she is already a professional performer and Helio is a race car driver. Sure, she had to learn ballroom dancing, but she had that edge of being a performer. So I thought Helio was the perfect contestant for DWTS.

I thought the show was good, but it was so long… Having all of the dancers back to dance and Celine Dion singing, made it a very long show. All I wanted to see was who won!! Towards the end of the show, they ran out of time and there wasn’t enough time to talk with Helio and Julianne and second place team, Mel and Maks.

But over all, as you can tell by all the postings in my blog, that I really did enjoy the show his season and I am looking forward to next year’s show!

Helio Castroneves Voted `Dancing’ Champ

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Race car driver Helio Castroneves is the winner of “Dancing With the Stars.” Spice Girl Melanie Brown and her partner, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, were the highest-scoring couple throughout the hit show’s fifth season. But on Tuesday night, viewers snubbed Brown and gave the mirrorball trophy to Castroneves.

The fourth consecutive man to win the contest, Castroneves’ personality, enthusiasm and flashing smile — combined with an effortless quickstep on his final performance — clearly resonated more with voters.

“It’s not only about dancing, you know? It’s about popularity,” Castroneves said after the show. “That’s what I’m actually very happy about.”

His partner, Julianne Hough, also had won last season’s competition, with speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno. “She has an incredible fan base,” Castroneves said.

The only female winner has been Kelly Monaco, who took the crown during the first season in 2005.

Despite her talents, Brown was unable to break the streak. She said that losing “was a horrible feeling. I’m not going to deny it.”

Earlier Tuesday, Marie Osmond was the first finalist to be eliminated. She probably deserved it after a doll-inspired freestyle dance that was panned by judges and bloggers alike. Osmond came into the finale in third place. Castroneves was in second, just one point behind Brown.

At age 48, Osmond’s frisky days were behind her, especially compared with young hotsteppers like Scary Spice or Sabrina Bryan of the Cheetah Girls. But Osmond said voters kept her afloat during the 10-week contest as she endured the death of her father and fainting on stage.

“We knew every single week that we were here because of them,” she said after the finale. “Obviously, I’m not the best dancer. We know that.”

The ABC show began in September with a dozen dancers. Model-actress Josie Maran was the first to be eliminated. Other nixed contestants were actresses Bryan, Jennie Garth and Jane Seymour, billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban, entertainer Wayne Newton, boxer Floyd Mayweather, model Albert Reed and actor Cameron Mathison.

Mathison shed his shirt after his last dance Tuesday. Maybe if he had done that earlier, he would have ended up as the man holding the trophy.

Like I mentioned before, I am surprised on how hooked I got on Dancing with the Stars this season. From writing about it on my blog or calling my family before and after the show. I got carried away with the show.

My first pre-show pick to win was Jennie Garth and my dark horse pick was Mark Cuban. Well as we can see, those two are not in the final. So that only leaves Marie, Mel and Helio. Two of them (Marie and Mel) are professional performers and one (Helio) is an athlete, so does that give the advantage to the professional performer? And does having a great professional partner, like Julianne, make you (Helio) look good?

And is there a difference on who the better dancer is and who has a larger fan base? I saw an e-mail from the Donny Osmond fan club and it had note on it to vote for Marie. If you go and look on the other Osmond websites, it mentions something about voting for Marie and Jonathan. So whoever has the most fans calling in, wins?

I guess we will never know if it’s a talent show or a popularity contest. One thing for sure, it was sure entertaining to watch these past couple of weeks!

So my pick to win Dancing with the Stars Season 5 is…

Mel B. and Maks

And I can not wait till next season!!

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I’m sitting at my desk watching Dancing with the Stars – The Results. I knew my votes counted for nothing because, when I was voting last might I thought I had five votes. So I voted for all of them and then I was going to use my last vote on Heilo. But when I tried to use my last vote, I was disappointed that I had already used all of my votes. Opps…

So now I am watching The Results Show…

They come back from a commercial and get ready to announce who the first star will be coming back… it’s Marie and Jonathan! I was SHOCKED!!

Now I am trying to figure out who is going to be voted off, since Marie was my pick to leave this week.

So who’s going to be voted off? Helio? Mel? Jennie? Do I go with my pick from the beginning of the season — Jennie? Or do I pick Helio who has charmed his way into the semi-finals?

OK, they are ready to pick another couple to go to the finals… the 2nd couple dancing in the finals is… Mel and Max. I think we could see that one coming. My only problem with Mel B. is that she is already a performer and she “dances” with The Spice Girls. So how much of a challenge was this for her?

So now it’s down to Jennie and Derek vs. Helio and Julianne.

So my pick on who is going to be voted off is Jennie and Derek — yes, my pick to win it all at the start of the season.

I was talking with my aunt and she told me that her husband, who is currently working in Arizona, will be going to Las Vegas in a couple of weeks. He has asked her to come out to be with him while he is working there. And get this, he has told her that she doesn’t have to work… if my husband ever said that to me, he wouldn’t have to repeat himself!

But her doing this would mean a couple of things:

She would have to fly by herself. I will never understand why people have a problem doing things by themselves.

She would have to leave her daughter (and her three children) and son behind. I told her that I read that Dr. Phil said (I can’t believe I am referencing Dr. Phil!) But he said that it’s their lives and she need to concentrate on herself and her life. (That not what he exactly said, but the meaning was there.)

She is worried that her grand babies will forget her. I told her that there is little chance that will happen. Her plan is to come back to visit them every two to three weeks.

I told her she should do this. When is she going to get another opportunity to do something like this?

Why are we afraid to do something different, something out of comfort zone? You hear people say that they don’t want to regret doing something when they get older. Well I say, why not do whatever you want to do now??

It’s scary to take that leap of faith. But when you do, sometimes it turns out to be something really good. And if it turns out bad… so what!

I am guilty of not getting out of my comfort zone, but at least I have done some things. Like moving to Massachusetts, moving to Kentucky, moving to Texas.

There are far too many people that I know that don’t take any chances at all or doing things by themselves. I have had some of the greatest times doing things by myself. My Graceland trip, to name one.

So now that I have posted this on my blog, I guess I need to — Get busy living, or get busy dying.

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His own biggest fan: Cameron Mathison was certain this was his week “to bring home a 10” with the Viennese waltz or cha-cha, not his week to go home. And evidently he thought he deserved perfect marks the week before, too. Hey, that’s why the stars don’t judge their own performances. That’s not to say he can’t dance — his partner Edyta Sliwinska has made enormous progress with him over the last seven weeks — but he never mastered ballroom finesse. Still, it’s a shame to see SuperCam fly away before … ahem … certain other dancers.

Semi-dancing to the semifinals: Once again Marie Osmond showcased some mediocre dance skills, and once again her loyal fans drummed up the votes to save her. It’s not the first week she’s stayed while superior celebrity hoofers got the boot, but this time it takes her to the semifinals. Her good-enough rumba and little-bit-country jive didn’t stand out in the mix Monday night, and even Marie was shocked when Tom Bergeron announced she and Jonathan Roberts were still in it. But Mel B wasn’t just surprised to hear the news — she looked downright angry.

Leading the pack: While Helio Castroneves’ first dance, the paso doble, proved he paid attention to the judges’ comments about his all-heel footwork last week, his quickstep left that performance in the dust. He finally delivered a performance worthy of all the promise he showed in the first weeks of the competition. That earned Helio and Julianne Hough their first perfect 30. Just before inviting them to dance the encore, head judge Len Goodman called the fast, precision routine the best quickstep they’ve seen in five seasons of the show.

Sweatin’ to the ballroom: After an odd confidence pep talk session with weight-loss coach Richard Simmons, Jennie Garth hit the floor with plenty of gusto. Unfortunately, that bold attitude didn’t help the sloppy, hyper jive that followed. She and Derek Hough redeemed themselves with an elegant fox-trot, but it still didn’t please Bruno Tonioli, who insists that Jennie’s failed to dazzle him despite her dazzle potential. Len, on the other hand, thinks Jennie could be this season’s dark horse.

M&M know mambo: Helio and Julianne may have dominated the night, but Mel B and Maksim Chmerkovskiy weren’t far behind. In fact, just one point separated the power couples. If M&M’s aggressive tango didn’t seem so derivative of the previous paso, it could have been the dance of the night. But it was their near-perfect mambo that showed why they’re still the couple to watch for on finale night. Without relying on gimmicks, the classic, streamlined mambo ranked among their best moves yet.

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While I was watching tonight’s Dancing with the Stars, I was surprised how much I am into the show. After the first commercial break, I turned on my computer and went to the abc.com website to get ready vote.

First up were Jennie and Derek – Is my pick before the show started breaking out? Not really. The judges were right saying that she is almost there at the next level.

Cameron and Edyta – Their first dance, I had a hard time watching because of Edyta’s dress. I think that was the most material she has ever worn in a costume on the show. They did alright, but I am just not a fan of theirs.

Marie and Jonathan – It was hard to not like Marie and Jonathan’s dance routine. If anything comes from her being on the show, she looks better and better each week.

Helio and Julianne – Holy cow did you see their second dance… WOW! I loved it. I was really surprised with the kiss that Helio planted on Julianne. It looked like she was not expecting it at all. I think Helio is another Apolo, he just might make it to the finals and take home the trophy.

Mel and Maks – I think they will be in the finals with Helio and Julianne. I love it when they dance the Latin dances. They make a great pair together, but I think she is another Joey from last season. Because she’s a professional and in the entertainment field and Helio is not.

Helio and Julianne – deserved to take the top spot. And Mel and Maks were fun to watch too!

So my pick for the next team to go home: Cameron and Edyta. (Sorry Pamela (my niece) this was her pick at the start of the season.)

There are always plenty of reasons to qualify Dancing With the Stars as ”tragic,” but not until season 5 has the term applied quite so literally. Yesterday morning, Marie Osmond found out that her father, George, 90, had passed away. So Marie was absent from last night’s results show — and was the first contestant to be announced as safe from elimination. It was last week’s absentee, Jane Seymour, who got the boot this week.

Dr. Quinn-tessentially Elegant (do I sound as lame as Len?) took the news rather graciously; it seemed she pretty much expected to go home. Her arc on the show was certainly all over the map — from starting out strong, to losing her mom, to foot-painting with Tony, to developing a near-labor-inducing case of food poisoning, to complaining about both the unfair ”lift” regulations and (gasp!) the other contestants. But all that’s behind us now, and Jane will most likely go down in DWTS history as the elegant/classy/regal/poised/blah blah blah contestant who Bruno Tonioli once compared to Edyta.

Tom and Samantha darted nervously around the idea that the two couples along with Jane as the ”final three” were not necessarily members of the dreaded ”bottom two.” Speculate as you wish, but I’m guessing that Marie might have landed second to last and the show — rightly so — just didn’t want to go there last night. Makes sense, and even though messing with Jennie-Derek’s and Helio-Julianne’s heads could qualify as brutal, watching them squirm as they waited for Tom to strike his weekly blow was somewhat intriguing. Or anticlimactic and pointless. You make the call. (Get on the horn!)

Back by popular demand, Kenny Mayne’s ”Dancecenter” segment saved the otherwise drowsy results show. If you don’t remember or haven’t seen Mayne’s ill-fated foray into dance, watch it now and marvel at just how far he’s come in his willingness to associate with anything involving a ballroom setting. With caked-on bronzer that stopped abruptly at the chin, shimmery green eye shadow, and a rhinestone-studded purple blouse, he’s now as synonymous with DWTS as the kaleidoscopic ”Is this an acid trip or a TV show?” opening credits.

Along with a flamboyantly outfitted Jerry Rice and the ever-crotchety DANCMSTR, Mayne ripped heavily on basically everything during his rundown of the six remaining stars. Helio’s smile clocked in at 42 inches wide, which, Mayne admitted, ”weirds me out.” He then called Jane Seymour ”75 to 80 years old,” prompting Rice to point out ”you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” Yes, that seemed mean, but then suddenly the animated white pen was circling multiple examples of the bizarre scrunch thing Jennie does with her mouth, and you realized Mayne’s an equal-opportunity insulter just putting in a day’s work. And his words do ring true: His throwaway ”There are some weird people on this show” is probably the understatement of the 21st century.

During the rare moments when he could get in a word edgewise against Mayne, who kept hilariously shutting him down, DANCMSTR did offer some clues as to which couples the judges want to stick around. He gave Helio a 50-50 chance of winning the whole competition, then later dismissed Cameron with a vague ”Good is not good enough.” (This came right after Len used the nonexistent word ”pectorials.”) DANCMSTR seemed equally psyched about Jennie’s confidence issues (the producers love a good personal-growth arc) and Mel B.’s versatility.